Philip Christopherson's eureka moment came when he hit on the idea of gastro-morsels. Adam Edwards reports
Every cloud - albeit a nicotine one dispersed by Government - has a silver lining. And furthermore, says Nibblers' Philip Christopherson airily, every redundant ashtray, even one stained by cigarette butts, has a use.
"Let them contain pistachio-nut shells," says the upmarket snack company owner while denying any claims that he is related to Marie Antoinette.
"Let non-smokers graze on parsnip chips," he continues, warming to his theme. "Let the new abstainers play with a sun-dried cherry tomato.'
And you can be quite sure that if his exclusive fruit-and-nut mix came in a bread-like composition he would have added "let them eat cake".
For Christopherson, like the French queen who coined the legendary remark, is expansive when it comes to the popular merits of a gourmet snack.
He talks fondly of tickling his palate with marinated forest mushrooms and relishing a grilled artichoke heart. He suggests dried baby onions in balsamic vinegar as an amuse-bouche - while the stuffed olive is, he claims, an aristocrat among small victuals.
And now, as he witnesses authoritarian outlawing of smoking in pubs he opines: "Let them tuck into a deli-board". The board is, he says, the licensee's route to riches. It is the silver foil in the cigarette cloud.
Going upmarket
Five years ago Philip Christopherson and his wife, Rachel, walked into a gastropub in the Cotswolds and were offered, as an accompaniment to their 1996 Chassagne Montrachet en Virandot, a packet of Big D salted peanuts from a card featuring "page three lovely" Ruth Higham.
"There was nothing wrong with Ruth," says the former London chef. "It was the nuts that were downmarket. The pub was smart, the menu was Continental and the food looked great - and all we could get with our pre-dinner drink was a Big D nut or a Walkers' crisp."
It was Christopherson's Gordon Ramsay moment. As the e-word (eureka) was uttered, the bulb illuminated above his head and the gastro-morsel was born.
Christopherson, who has been involved in catering all his life (in the late '80s he had
the novel idea of making a sausage that
wasn't stuffed with sweepings from the
butcher's floor), was convinced that if licensees had the opportunity to buy upmarket
appetisers from a single source, they would leap at the opportunity.
"Our real problem was that the managed houses weren't interested," says Christopherson, who had christened his fledgling company Nibblers.
"The big company purchase-managers only had the choice of two competing snack companies: Walkers - manufacturer of
Walkers Crisps, Snack-a-Jacks and Wotsits - and United Biscuits, which produces McCoys, Hula Hoops and Mini Cheddars.
"Those managers knew perfectly well that nobody asks for a bag of Walkers or a packet of McCoy's. There's no customer brand-loyalty. We realised we couldn't compete in that stratosphere."
Instead Christopherson and a handful of salesmen knocked on the doors of every free-house and tenanted pub within a hundred-mile radius of his Gloucestershire home, offering a luxury fruit-and-nut-mix service, delivered overnight by courier. And he provided a free set of elegant glass jars to contain different snacks on the bar.
"We told licensees: 'Improve your snacks and you will improve your profits.' We weren't interested in packaging or marketing - just the quality of the product. The large companies soon realised what we'd stumbled upon. They had to up their game. They realised snacks were important, both for image and as a
profit-centre."
One-stop snack shop
Within two years Nibblers was supplying
more than a thousand pubs. Its customers
included Mitchells & Butlers, Marston's, Young's and even Gordon Ramsay's pub, the Warrington.
The company's range increased enormously to include Tyrrells crisps; nine variations of olive; Japanese rice crackers; Swedish salami and even - apologies if this sounds like a contradiction in terms - classy pork scratchings.
Success meant a move to bigger premises, the need for Rachel to get a fork-lift truck licence, and a big new idea - the deli-board.
"If people are drinking wine they want something to nibble, particularly if they used to drink and smoke," says Christopherson.
"If they're drinking at a non-traditional time - between lunch and dinner, for example - they probably don't want a menu or a starter, or to go to a dining table. A plate of four or five antipasti costing less than a tenner is the solution. The deli-board doesn't require a chef and it earns the operator money he or she wasn't earning before."
It is a concept Nibbles launched in March at the International Food Exhibition and was rolled out in May. Balls Brothers, Greene King and Wadworth have already taken it up, while others are queuing to join in.
"We are offering a one-stop shop for upmarket snacks," says Christopherson. "Food sales are going to be boosted by the no-smoking legislation. Smokers need something to nibble. A new customer base of non-smokers is going to start coming to pubs. And this re-invented customer won't feel satisfied with a stale peanut."
And I'd swear that he added under his breath: "Put that in your pipe and smoke it".
Outside, of course, outside.
What's available from Nibblers
l Nuts and crackers include Thai nuts; smoked almonds; chilli nuts; king- sized Japanese crackers; wasabi mix.
l Ten types of olives, including marinated chilli & garlic pitted olives; green olives stuffed with feta cheese, green olives stuffed with lemon, and kalamata olives marinated in pesto oil.
l Highlights of the large selection of antipasti available include cheese wrapped in ham; marinated forest mushrooms, hot peppers stuffed with artichoke, grilled marinated halumi cheese, and sliced spicy salami sausage.